Apple May Introduce a Triple-Camera iPhone This Year (thenextweb.com)

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Apple May Introduce a Triple-Camera iPhone This Year (thenextweb.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Friday June 1, 2018 @01:00PM from the all-the-better-to-see-you-with dept.

A rumor from The Korea Herald suggests that Apple may be planning on introducing its first triple camera smartphone this year with the rumored 6.5-inch iPhone. The rumor comes buried in a piece mostly about Samsung, which is also expected to introduce a triple-camera smartphone with next year's S10. The Next Web reports: To be clear, this isn't the first time we've heard word of a triple camera iPhone, but the three previous reports have pointed to a 2019 release, according to MacRumors. One of these reports was from Ming Chi Kuo, an Apple analyst who has a solid track record. The fact that's it's mentioned offhandedly in the Korea Herald report makes me think the date may have been a mistake. No matter how good AI and processing get, there's only so much you can do within the physical constraints of a small smartphone sensor. In theory, using multiple cameras and combining the information with some smart processing could help you somewhat replicate the image quality of a larger sensor.

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Yawn. by mcmonkey · 2018-06-01 13:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

Phones with 3 cameras. Razors with 5 blades. Monkeys with 6 asses.
No room for an sd slot, removable battery, or headphone jack. But 3 cameras, sure.
1. Re:Yawn. by Solandri · 2018-06-01 13:55 · Score: 1
  
  A minimum of two cameras are needed to capture 3D images. Two will work, but you can end up with shadows. Three reduces the amount of shadowing. I suspect the optimal balance of reduced shadowing and minimizing camera expense is e cameras (2.718). So three is a better match than two.
  
  I was hopeful the light field camera was going to be the solution. It basically turns every point on the lens into a separate camera for the purposes of capturing 3D info. But development (and interest) seems to have stagnated. Perhaps what we really need first is some means of displaying 3D images (that doesn't require wearing dorky glasses). But that's a chicken and egg problem. Regardless if whichever one comes first, either a light field or multi-camera system isnecessary if the dream of capturing holographic images is ever to become a reality.
  
  But yeah, it seems silly to progress with this while going backwards in terms of SD slots, removable batteries, and headphone jacks. An unfortunate side-effect of high brand-loyalty resulting in the primary driving force being customer lock-in, rather than features which help the customer.
2. Re: Yawn. by fubarrr · 2018-06-01 14:08 · Score: 1
  
  Bad for them, Huawei already has a phone with 4 cameras scheduled for this year.
3. Re: Yawn. by phantomfive · 2018-06-01 14:25 · Score: 1
  
  Apple is obsessed with AR. Having two cameras on the back will give depth perception, making AR easier.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
4. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 15:00 · Score: 0
  
  Of course its bullshit. It's like when monitor screen manufacturers wanted to get rid of 16:10 24" screens so they started a huge shill campaign on the internet complaining about black bars on 16:10 and that 16:9 had no black bars in movies. But now look around us and theres ultra wide monitors from every screen manufacturer but nobody complains about black bars on them. Nobody complains about movies not fitting into the non 16:9 smart phone screens. Why? Cause the black bar complaint was bullshit all along and screen manufacturers were trying to skimp on screen area while still calling them 24" screens.
5. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 15:18 · Score: 0
  
  Double yawn. No body cares about iApple anymore; they're irrevelant.
  CAP === 'unneeded'
6. Re:Yawn. by AC-x · 2018-06-01 16:47 · Score: 1
  
  I don't remember any campaigns against 16:10 monitors, I just remember them slowly disappearing because it was cheaper to use the same 16:9 panels on both TVs and monitors.
7. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 17:36 · Score: 0
  
  Better people than you have decided you don't need sd cards, headphone jacks and replaceable batteries. Bow to authority and be content. Or are you a malcontent? A troublemaker? An anarchist? Are you - gasp! - a terrorist? SECURITY!!!
8. Re:Yawn. by TheRealHocusLocus · 2018-06-01 18:18 · Score: 1
  
  I'm too ugly for even one camera, let alone three.
  My friends chipped in to get me a basic phone.
  Now I don't have to look at them either.
  
  --
  <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
9. Re:Yawn. by quenda · 2018-06-01 18:34 · Score: 1
  
  It'd be nice if one of the cameras was on the other end of the phone, so it can take 3D photos and video.
  When I say "nice", I mean a novelty that will amuse us briefly. Like UHD.
10. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 19:19 · Score: 0
  
  Phones with 3 cameras.
  No room for an sd slot, removable battery, or headphone jack. But 3 cameras, sure.
  We do not need superthin smartphone !!
11. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 20:05 · Score: 0
  
  Thanks to that lost 10% of screen estate. So what if had black bars while watching movies...
12. Re:Yawn. by TeknoHog · 2018-06-01 21:32 · Score: 1
  
  A minimum of two cameras are needed to capture 3D images. .... Perhaps what we really need first is some means of displaying 3D images (that doesn't require wearing dorky glasses).
  If you live in n dimensions of space, you'll only ever see (n-1)-dimensional images, because the ray of light takes up one dimension. Light rays won't give any info about depth along their axes. Of course, with translucent materials you can focus at different depths at a time to capture 2D slices. Perhaps with today's tech you could do this fast enough get decent 3D images at decent framerates. But most of it will be wasted because you'll only see two 2D images at a time.
  
  --
  Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
13. Re:Yawn. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 23:04 · Score: 0
  
  You don't own the device. It owns you. That's why they don't give a rats ass what you want. You're merely the goy, er I mean guy, paying for it.
14. Re:Yawn. by AmiMoJo · 2018-06-02 00:03 · Score: 0
  
  Multiple cameras do make sense for phones, because they have very limited optics. Being so flat it's difficult to do things like moving lenses or variable apertures. So the solution is have two different cameras, one with a wide angle lens and one with a narrow one, or one with black and white sensor for detail and one with colour.
  Problem then is you have to pick what cameras you want and can't change. Apple might try having 3 so they have more options.
  Personally I prefer Google's "computational photography" system that uses one camera. Aside from working better anyway it can potentially work with cheaper cameras so that even low end phones can have good results. Also works on the single front camera if you are in to selfies.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
15. Re:Yawn. by MachineShedFred · 2018-06-02 00:32 · Score: 1
  
  You understand that cameras are surface mount components that go on the back, right? Where there's a sea of unused space? And the three things you gripe about need a lot of depth or volume in a device that every manufacturer (for reasons nobody quite understands) wants to be thinner?
  Adding another camera might make the existing "bump" on the back of the phone for two cameras just span the width of the phone, finally making it not sit on a desk like that bad table at the diner down the street that needs a couple Sweet-n-Low packets under one of the legs...
  Plus, the SD slot and battery is mostly solved nicely by something like this. $40 for a battery that will fully charge your phone twice, has a full SD card reader, a portable WiFi router with actual ethernet. And if you are really that hard up for storage space, it will accept a USB flash stick too, expanding to storage well beyond what you can get in an SD card.
  Yes, you may have to carry a small extra thing, but that extra thing can be left in a backpack and used when needed with the minor inconvenience of pushing a button for a second or two to turn it on. And, the router can forward other wifi networks too, so you can use it on an airplane to share one in-flight wifi access purchase with several devices (or companions) - doing that even once pays for the cost of the device.
  
  --
  Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
16. Re: Yawn. by MachineShedFred · 2018-06-02 00:35 · Score: 2
  
  They've had two cameras on the back for like 3 years now.
  
  --
  Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
17. Re:Yawn. by tsa · 2018-06-02 00:55 · Score: 0
  
  Courage.
  Courage would be to put an SD slot in, instead of yet another camera.
  
  --
  -- Cheers!
18. Re: Yawn. by tsa · 2018-06-02 00:57 · Score: 1
  
  You can take 5D pictures with that one!
  Pity you can't display them on its 2D screen.
  
  --
  -- Cheers!
Three cameras? Why not five? by alvinrod · 2018-06-01 13:16 · Score: 4, Funny

Fuck everything, we're doing five cameras.
1. Re:Three cameras? Why not five? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 15:41 · Score: 0
  
  Screw it... Just cover every mm of your phone with cmos sensors.
2. Re:Three cameras? Why not five? by mbourgon · 2018-06-01 17:05 · Score: 2
  
  You think you're being funny.... https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RorDlgu...
  
  --
  "Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
But "no room" for a headphone jack. by thegarbz · 2018-06-01 13:16 · Score: 0

Since they were so tight on space maybe now that they've clearly miniturised components to the point where they can fit more shit in, maybe they could bring the headphone jack back.
1. Re: But "no room" for a headphone jack. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 14:36 · Score: 0
  
  No, when they add this third camera, then something else will be jettisoned. Apple probably figures that their customers are already used to a crappy battery life, so they'll make the battery smaller, and then they'll say that it took courage.
2. Re: But "no room" for a headphone jack. by Bing+Tsher+E · 2018-06-01 15:02 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  They'll remove the phone's earpiece speaker. Nobody needs to listen to the phone directly. That's what those $180 epods or earwigg whatchacallit things are for. It will be BRAVE. They can include a little dongle speaker in the box, that plugs into the darkening port, to assauge the timid.
3. Re:But "no room" for a headphone jack. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-02 01:32 · Score: 0
  
  It was never purely about the physical space, it was the fact that old style headphone jacks couldn't be made water proof, that additional circuitry and effort is required to convert digital audio into analog and that there is already a huge move away from wired headphones all together.
  You know eventually technology changes and it's always going to be the case that during the transition some people aren't going to like it
  For instance when computers started dropping floppy disk drives. There were loads of people put out by that but the reality was it finally reached the place where most people weren't going to miss them. The same thing happened when many computers started dropping optical drives.
  And I'll just point out, Apple has a long history of being one of the first to transition away from old tech, so it was never particularly surprising that they one of the first to drop the old audio jack.
4. Re:But "no room" for a headphone jack. by fluffernutter · 2018-06-02 02:11 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  For instance when computers started dropping floppy disk drives.
  Bullshit. CDs/DVDs/Flash drives completely and affordably replaced the functionality of floppy drives before they were removed. Bluetooth headphones don't replace corded headphones because you have to charge them, they rely on their own DAC, and the battery gives them a limited lifespan. The dongle doesn't replace the jack because you can't charge and listen at the same time.
  
  People aren't against technology moving on, people are against it moving on before there are adequate alternatives.
  
  --
  Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
5. Re:But "no room" for a headphone jack. by LinuxIsGarbage · 2018-06-02 06:24 · Score: 1
  
  For instance when computers started dropping floppy disk drives.
  Bullshit. CDs/DVDs/Flash drives completely and affordably replaced the functionality of floppy drives before they were removed. Bluetooth headphones don't replace corded headphones because you have to charge them, they rely on their own DAC, and the battery gives them a limited lifespan. The dongle doesn't replace the jack because you can't charge and listen at the same time.
  People aren't against technology moving on, people are against it moving on before there are adequate alternatives.
  Apple removed the Floppy drive from the original iMac in 1998. At that point the computer came with a CD-ROM drive, not a CD-R/RW. USB Flash drives had yet to be invented, and highspeed internet access was not universal, and "cloud" storage wasn't really a thing. I'd say it was another 5 years before they started disappearing from Desktop PCs.
  Optical drives probably started disappearing in the 2007/2008 range with Netbooks and the original MacBook air. Then people started realizing they hardly used them anyways.
6. Re:But "no room" for a headphone jack. by fluffernutter · 2018-06-02 07:28 · Score: 2
  
  So Apple screwed up on the floppy drive too. Meanwhile, people who used sensible devices like Thinkpads had a floppy option until flash drives *were* invented, or at least the laptop came with a CD/RW. Apple has a long history of abandoning users, that part is clear.
  
  --
  Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
7. Re:But "no room" for a headphone jack. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-03 03:16 · Score: 0
  
  There's also the issue of replacing a completely universal standard with a patchwork of standards that may or may not play well together.
Reminds me of a time when by oldgraybeard · 2018-06-01 13:26 · Score: 0

Everyone had a double edged razor, I still do, don't use it often though ;)
Now we have multi headed razors that are so expensive the refills are kept in locked boxes ;) lol The marketers are bragging about the number of blades and mositure strips ;) lol

Anyway, so now it is a 3 camera phones, these smart phones are all getting so yesterday ;)

Just my 2 cents ;)
1. Re: Reminds me of a time when by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 14:49 · Score: 0
  
  Use a good disposable, and use it for a month or so The blue and green Gilettes are great. Two blades, pivot head, aloe strip (aka freshness meter) and $10 for a ten pack at most large drug stores. The aloe is a gimmick and wears off before the blade is dull. I got a fifty two pack at Costco a couple years ago for $25. Still have a few left. I shave in the shower after blasting hot water and use bar soap.
  Shaving kit, lather, scented oil stuff is a lifestyle braiding choice, not a functional one. A double edge high durability steel one is not better than a good, fresh disposable if you shave your face completely every day. Added bonus, the disposables are safe enough to mash in to your skin hard so you can shave fast as long as you don't go at and angle to the handle.
2. Re: Reminds me of a time when by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 23:52 · Score: 0
  
  You are an idiot.
  Safety razor w Gillette blues. The Russian ones.
3. Re:Reminds me of a time when by fluffernutter · 2018-06-02 07:30 · Score: 1
  
  Blade razors kept clogging for me, so I went to an electric razor. Then I noticed the trimmer on the electric razor did a better job than the razor itself, so I bought a trimmer. Now that is all I use.
  
  --
  Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
4. Re: Reminds me of a time when by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-02 11:45 · Score: 0
  
  Absolutely they will clog. Try shaving in the shower, towards the end. You can tap them in the water to clear them out every couple strokes at first as you clear the bulk and then as needed when handling the nose area and chin.
Fuck Everything by poity · 2018-06-01 13:31 · Score: 0

We're doing five cameras.

--
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
1. Re:Fuck Everything by oldgraybeard · 2018-06-01 13:33 · Score: 1
  
  And I raise u 3 cameras ;) and an auto screen wiper.
2. Re:Fuck Everything by Nutria · 2018-06-01 13:42 · Score: 2
  
  Real Men shave with dull hatchets and take pictures with one lens. Everything else is for pussies and people with pussies.
  
  --
  "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
3. Re:Fuck Everything by ColdWetDog · 2018-06-01 14:21 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, and it's going to be liquid nitrogen cooled and have a battery life stated in milliseconds.
  But it will be thin. Wafer thin.
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
4. Re:Fuck Everything by CanadianMacFan · 2018-06-02 01:18 · Score: 1
  
  Real men find a flat rock and use another to sharpen one edge in order to shave. If they want to take a "picture" they record the scene by carving it onto a piece of wood.
5. Re:Fuck Everything by Nutria · 2018-06-02 03:42 · Score: 1
  
  https://www.theonion.com/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades-1819584036
  
  "Hey, shaving with anything less than five blades is like scraping your beard off with a dull hatchet."
  
  --
  "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
A 6.5" iPhone? by LynnwoodRooster · 2018-06-01 13:36 · Score: 0

Steve Jobs is winding fast in his grave. That's bigger than anything from any other vendor. Courage?

--
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
1. Re:A 6.5" iPhone? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 13:57 · Score: 0
  
  Steve Jobs is winding fast in his grave. That's bigger than anything from any other vendor. Courage?
  When I needed a cheap ass phone a couple of years ago, I bought a Blu with a 7" screen off Amazon for about $100. It also replaced my tablet that my son broke.
  At any rate, it was ridiculously large and I eventually broke the screen when helping someone move.
  I do miss reading on that phone though. It was the size of a paperback.
No matter how good AI .... by ugen · 2018-06-01 13:39 · Score: 1

AI? Wtf? Do we need AI label slapped everywhere? It's an damn extra camera - a lens and a CCD. What AI is there?
1. Re:No matter how good AI .... by AHuxley · 2018-06-01 14:04 · Score: 2
  
  The AI does advanced math on the 3 images so that all fit together into a trendy image.
  Take the "3" images into AI software and select the light and what has to be in focus.
  The 3 images give the user more light information and focus to select a part of the image they really think will make them look artistic and skilled.
  Click when when ready and the "AI" will save an image.
  AI created software bokeh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... with a tap/click of the user.
  3 images blended by software into one image just has to look better after an AI has stacked the images together.
  
  --
  Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
2. Re: No matter how good AI .... by phantomfive · 2018-06-01 14:23 · Score: 1
  
  The AI is for post processing. For example, the latest phoje from Google has one of the top phones right now, but a lot of that is just being really good at setting white balance and brightness.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
3. Re:No matter how good AI .... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 15:12 · Score: 0
  
  apples AI is siri so that means some blurry crappy pics for apple users.
4. Re:No matter how good AI .... by Hognoxious · 2018-06-01 19:26 · Score: 1
  
  They like that kind of stuff. There's even a name for it - lomography.
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
5. Re:No matter how good AI .... by angel'o'sphere · 2018-06-02 01:49 · Score: 1
  
  Wow, another guy mixing up what even the most primitive AIs are. A picture processing algorithm is not AI at the slightest.
  
  --
  Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
6. Re:No matter how good AI .... by AHuxley · 2018-06-02 02:24 · Score: 1
  
  Re "A picture processing algorithm is not AI at the slightest."
  3 lens designs on the back of a consumer smartphone can only do so much.
  So the 3 images that result are going to have to be presented in some interactive way to the user expecting something new out of their new and very trendy smartphone.
  Lets call it the AI bokeh enhancer. The AI focus creator. The AI part helps the very average user enhance their images. Detects the face, gets people in focus and allows the user to save the most pleasing image.
  The end user is sold on their new found creativity. The company sells more 3 lens smartphones. The cloud AI looks into every image and sells ads back to the user when "helping" with the complex math needed for every image.
  Dog food ads for the people with lots of dog images.
  Cat food for ads people with lots of cat images.
  The AI and the cloud is not just for better bokeh and amazing low light images. The correct ads will follow the AI down to the correct users account.
  The AI correct the images and pushes the ads. A win for more advanced smartphone design and AI developers get to show that AI has a real world use.
  Pushing ads to the correct accounts in real time.
  
  --
  Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
The Samsung rumor is at least consistent... by tlambert · 2018-06-01 13:42 · Score: 1, Interesting

The Samsung rumor is at least consistent with one of the patent applications I made while at Google; it was for a multidirectional camera using a single CCD to effectively create more than one camera aperture.
Mostly the intent was to reduce COGS (Cost of Goods Sold), by about $35 per camera assembly.
In practice, it might also have resulted in an overall thinner device.
Herrrrrrrrrres Putin! by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 13:45 · Score: 0

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Three cameras? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 13:57 · Score: 0

... Are not enough...
Sheesh! Five cameras ... by kbahey · 2018-06-01 14:02 · Score: 1

Puny iPhone ...
The xKCD Phone 2000 has 5 cameras!

--
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
Wide angle selfie camera? by iamhassi · 2018-06-01 14:02 · Score: 1

I'd like a wide shot selfie camera, for when I forgot a selfie stick but need to fit everyone in the photo.

--
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
1. Re: Wide angle selfie camera? by Bing+Tsher+E · 2018-06-01 15:11 · Score: 1
  
  No, this new widget camera is for augmented reality. You hold it up, while it runs the iFriends app, and you can look through the screen and see other people near you. People who think your new phone is really cool.
2. Re:Wide angle selfie camera? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 17:08 · Score: 0
  
  try a double-barrel shotgun with open choke. perfect for everyone in a selfie
Already been done by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 14:25 · Score: 1

The Huawei P20 Pro, which came out in March, already uses 3 cameras. According to online reviews for the P20 Pro, the triple-camera setup does dramatically improve image quality, especially under low-light conditions.
1. Re:Already been done by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 16:20 · Score: 0
  
  apple copying real tech companies again.
Fuck Everything. We're Doing Five Cameras by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 14:37 · Score: 0

Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of phones in this country. The Apple Mach3 was the phone to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-camera phone. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Mach3Turbo. That's three cameras and a USB port. For storage. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happenedâ"the bastards went to four cameras. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three cameras and a port. Storage or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to five cameras.
Sure, we could go to four cameras next, like the competition. That seems like the logical thing to do. After all, three worked out pretty well, and four is the next number after three. So let's play it safe. Let's make the port Fire Wire and call it the Mach3SuperTurbo. Why innovate when we can follow? Oh, I know why: Because we're a business, that's why.
HEY APPLE, NO HEADPHONE JACK, NO SALE! by Proudrooster · 2018-06-01 14:40 · Score: 1, Informative

I am still bitter about the headphone jack and even if Apple puts 50 cameras on it, I am going to pass.
In my opinion, Apple's bad design decisions since 2015 are only getting worse and worse.
Johnny Ive's needs to be demoted.
1. Re:HEY APPLE, NO HEADPHONE JACK, NO SALE! by Tony+Isaac · 2018-06-01 16:22 · Score: 1
  
  If you think, as I do, that a headphone jack is important, you are clearly not the type of customer Apple is looking for. They want the kind of people who will pay $300 for one of their own Beats Bluetooth headsets. Personally, I'm fine with a $20 pair of wired headphones!
2. Re:HEY APPLE, NO HEADPHONE JACK, NO SALE! by Hognoxious · 2018-06-01 19:23 · Score: 1
  
  Johnny Ive's needs to be demoted.
  
  His what?
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
3. Re: HEY APPLE, NO HEADPHONE JACK, NO SALE! by Bing+Tsher+E · 2018-06-01 22:02 · Score: 1
  
  Already surgically removed.
4. Re:HEY APPLE, NO HEADPHONE JACK, NO SALE! by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 23:08 · Score: 0
  
  iPhone 4s. Greatest phone ever made. Probably will continue to be true for the foreseeable future. If the iPhone 4s running iOS 6 went on sale tomorrow, I'd buy one.
Catching up to 2016 by Khyber · 2018-06-01 14:48 · Score: 1

My Kyocera DuraForce Pro from 2016 has three cameras. One front-facing, one regular rear, one action rear with wide-angle lens, meant for underwater shots.
Welcome to a couple years ago, Apple.

--
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
1. Re:Catching up to 2016 by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 15:07 · Score: 1
  
  CAT S60 has three cameras: front facing, rear facing, rear facing IR. I prefer my cameras to augment my eyesight, not show me things I can already see.
  It's designed to be used while scuba-diving too, has an audio jack, has a border so you can hold it and not touch the screen at the same time, has a notch above the screen instead of inside it and did so before notches were cool, and has a non-thin border so you don't accidentally slice all your fingers off if you grip it too tightly.
Fun mockery aside,.. by AbRASiON · 2018-06-01 15:07 · Score: 1

I'm curious to know what a 3rd camera would offer a phone?
I've seen the pictures from an iPhone X with the fake depth of field thing, regardless of it being fake, it does look really quite nice.
Modern smartphone cameras are really good, even for a single lense. Any smart guys here know what a full 3 could do for a phone?
Oh and all the comments whining about the headphone jack? Agreed entirely. Idiotic move, I'll wait for someone else to copy the 3 cameras, when it's on a phone with a headphone jack.
1. Re:Fun mockery aside,.. by Hallux-F-Sinister · 2018-06-01 16:14 · Score: 2
  
  A phone with no headphone jack is like... I hear Apple is entering the highly competitive cutlery and tableware market. Their initial foray will be called the iFork. Thirty percent lighter, it will feature an innovative, single-tine design, streamlining the movement of food between your plate (works best with the new Apple Plate,) and your mouth. Why only one tine when other fork makers are using three, or occasionally two? Because... COURAGE.
  
  A year later Apple will offer the iFork 2, with a head that swivels 355 degrees allowing the freedom to grasp it at nearly any angle, and following the famous words, “one more thing,” they will wow the breathless WWDC crowd with the new iSpoon, which will be a rounded rectangle, with a rounded square hole in one end, that expands on contact with a liquid to hold a larger volume than seems possible, like a gull has. Featuring a proprietary gallium aluminum magnesium nickel alloy, the iSpoon will retail initially for $199.95, and have a base capacity of up to 3.7ml, and be fully rechargeable.
  
  Several years later, Apple will discontinue the iFork, introduce the Apple Knife, Knife Edition, with a side for buttering avocado toast, and a side for cutting tofu, (since by then Apple will become a pure vegan company,) though third-party attachments will become available to allow for cutting of meats and cheeses, but Apple will say that using one violates the Terms of Service and the warranty, and makes puppies cry. Then they’ll offer a holiday bundle with the Apple Spoon, a rose-gold Apple Knife, (the first that is NOT Knife Edition,) and bring back the iFork, in the form of the new iFork SE, a throwback to people who REALLY liked the old iFork, and while internally it will share many of the same features as the Apple Spoon, it will reinvigorate the market for third-party add-on tine sleeves, owing to it having identical size and shape to the original. The set of three will, with Apple iFinancing, for well-qualified buyers, be available for twelve easy, simple payments of $39.95. Available initially in the US only.
  
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  Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
2. Re:Fun mockery aside,.. by f00zbll · 2018-06-02 02:27 · Score: 1
  
  the most obvious reason is binocular vision for more AR stuff. The current setup of 2 different cameras aren't idea for binocular vision. Not that it can't be done, but typically binocular vision is done with two identical cameras. The problem though is the cameras have to be oriented horizontally and have enough distance between them to get good results. That would mean a dramatic change in design, which is highly doubtful.
3. Re:Fun mockery aside,.. by painandgreed · 2018-06-04 03:57 · Score: 1
  
  I'm curious to know what a 3rd camera would offer a phone?
  Huawei's already done it. Looks like their as well as Apple's third camera will be for zoom features.
Re:With a hefty price to match by saloomy · 2018-06-01 15:17 · Score: 0

Yeah, I'm sure thats how it went. Douche.
That's right mother-fuckers! 3 fucking cameras! by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 15:33 · Score: 0

Damnit! What the hell is going on. First, they had 1 camera, and we had 1 camera. Then, they added 2 cameras and we added 2 cameras. Now, you're telling me they're adding a third fucking camera! What the fuck is going on? Why didn't we add a third camera? Are you fucking robots incompetent? Why the fuck are our pants down and an Apple is shoved in our mouths? I mean, Holy Shit! 3 Fucking cameras! Can you fucking believe that?
That's it! I'm tired of being second tier. We're going all the way to 5 fucking cameras. I don't give a fuck where you put them. Oh, and also, add a fucking lubricating fucking strip while you're at it!
And in a few years, back to one by RhettLivingston · 2018-06-01 16:41 · Score: 1

It is going to be interesting to see how they market the new wafer-thin metalenses when they hit production in a few years. They have no need to be round and open up the ability to tune the angle from which incoming light is focused on each pixel of the sensor.
We could have sensors that are a rectangular strip the width of the camera that use a lens that essentially makes each pixel or small group of pixels a camera looking in different directions or the same from varying points of view. The end result should be a camera that can beat binocular vision in depth sensing while allowing depth of field and focus to be selected after the shot is taken.
But, how do you market a return to a single camera to a society focused on numbers? Perhaps it's like the one lens to rule them all.
One for every room by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 18:12 · Score: 0

One camera in the bedroom,
one in the crapper,
one in the garden shed.
Its the new iPhone internet-star edition.
Why not stereo? by jtgd · 2018-06-01 18:14 · Score: 3, Insightful

No mention of putting the cameras on opposite ends of the phone so you could use it for stereoscopic photos. That would be cool.

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J
1. Re:Why not stereo? by cthulhu11 · 2018-06-03 15:08 · Score: 1
  
  Viewable with ... ? About as useful as a 3D TV.
2. Re:Why not stereo? by jtgd · 2018-06-06 09:50 · Score: 1
  
  Viewable with ... ?
  https://vr.google.com/cardboar...
  
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  J
Instead of a notch by OrangeTide · 2018-06-01 18:15 · Score: 1

There will be a 1 cm hole in the center of the screen for a new camera. And we'll all have to rewrite our apps to literally work around the problem.

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“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
You don't know jack, you hack by thoughtlover · 2018-06-01 19:53 · Score: 1

No matter how good AI and processing get, there's only so much you can do within the physical constraints of a small smartphone sensor.
Every human has the same physicality, therefore the same brain architecture.
It's the software, stupid.

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No sig for you! Come back one year!
Wow, Apple plain stealing Chinese tech again? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-01 21:14 · Score: 0

Huawei P20 Pro has had the three cameras working in the early prototypes since beginning of this year. Apple are just blatantly stealing and copying again?
1. Re:Wow, Apple plain stealing Chinese tech again? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-02 03:23 · Score: 0
  
  Yuuuupp. Its apple what else do you expect. Designing and innovating for themselves?
Cameras are the new razor blades by indytx · 2018-06-01 23:27 · Score: 1

This makes pretty good business sense because the phones are already practically disposable. Next someone will have a 4-camera phone, and then we'll see 5 cameras.

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Make love, not reality television.
I imagine it's like VLT by SpiceWare · 2018-06-02 01:44 · Score: 1

Very Large Telescope

The VLT consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m across, which are generally used separately but can be used together to achieve very high angular resolution.
...when all the telescopes are combined, the facility can achieve an angular resolution of about 0.001 arc-second. In single telescope mode of operation angular resolution is about 0.05 arc-second.
Angular resolution

Angular resolution or spatial resolution describes the ability of any image-forming device such as an optical or radio telescope, a microscope, a camera, or an eye, to distinguish small details of an object, thereby making it a major determinant of image resolution.
Re:With a hefty price to match by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-02 02:39 · Score: 0

There was also the improper use of the word "innovation" bandied about.
Re:With a hefty price to match by michelcolman · 2018-06-02 03:15 · Score: 1

Soon:
"Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Cameras"
I have a better idea by slashmydots · 2018-06-02 04:51 · Score: 1

Maybe they should release one without a massive, widespread defect for once instead. That seems like a better use of R&D money.
/. shit a brick when Apple removed the floppy by Brannon · 2018-06-02 07:20 · Score: 3, Insightful

Just like they did when Apple removed the parallel port, RS232, modems, Firewire, ethernet, headphone jack, replaceable batteries, Flash support, user-expandable DRAM, VGA ports, the original iPod connector, etc., etc.

Shitting bricks is just what /. does. It's pretty hard to find a more anti-innovation website. Apple is worth $800B specifically because they ignore /.
1. Re:/. shit a brick when Apple removed the floppy by TimHunter · 2018-06-02 07:27 · Score: 1
  
  I wish I had mod points. +1 Insightful. /. has the
2. Re:/. shit a brick when Apple removed the floppy by fluffernutter · 2018-06-02 07:57 · Score: 1
  
  Parallel ports had USB, VGA ports had HDMI... All were direct replacements. It's like you want to make a logical argument but yet don't want to read what I wrote already. The thing that makes Apple successful is that their prime demographic doesn't mind buying yet another thing to make up for the shortcoming. These are users that are already confused about computers, so they don't really know when they are being inconvenienced. By all means, keep being a sheep of a consumer and keep contributing to landfills with unnecessary little dongles as a 'fix' to this issues.
  
  --
  Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I think airpods work great, don't miss headphones. by Brannon · 2018-06-02 12:19 · Score: 1

Neither will you in a few years, but by then you'll be whining about whatever the next thing Apple does.
LMAO by p51d007 · 2018-06-02 13:21 · Score: 1

Instead of adding MORE cameras, how about making the stupid image sensor array LARGER. By increasing the size of the sensor array, EACH sensor would be LARGER, allowing for MORE light to be captured. Then, by adding a LARGER lens, you wouldn't need all of these gimmicks suck as 2,3 or more cameras. But, in the age of "more is better" sheep on the Apple & Android front, will probably fall for this garbage.
1. Re:LMAO by ebvwfbw · 2018-06-03 08:13 · Score: 1
  
  Someone doesn't own the company that makes the larger sensors... I say that as a joke, watch it be true.
Re:I think airpods work great, don't miss headphon by fluffernutter · 2018-06-02 17:23 · Score: 1

I've had around 5 generations of Thinkpads now, and 2 generations of Macbooks. I've had to get around 15 dongles to support my use of the mac in my house. Exactly 0 for the Thnkpads that I can think of. It's no wonder Apple makes so much money, they are literally forcing me to buy extra products just for the 'privilage' of using one of their products.

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Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Courage strikes again! by Anonymous Coward · 2018-06-04 04:11 · Score: 0

But, I fear I must ask: how much does this latest bit of courage cost? $1,500? $2,000?